Arnold Palmer
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Arnold Daniel Palmer (born September 10, 1929) is an American golfer who has won numerous events on both the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour, dating back to 1955. He was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Palmer is not generally regarded as the greatest player in history, but he is arguably golf's most popular star and its most important trailblazer because he was the first star of the sport's television age, which began in the 1950s.
[edit] Career outlinePalmer learned golf from his father, who was a golf professional at Latrobe Country Club. At age seven, Palmer broke 100. As a youngster, Palmer was only allowed on the Latrobe course (it was just nine holes then) in early morning or late afternoon, when the members weren't playing. He attended Wake Forest University from 1947 until 1954, taking time out for service in the United States Coast Guard. He left Wake Forest without earning a degree and briefly worked as a paint salesman but after winning the 1954 U.S. Amateur he turned professional and he won the Canadian Open the following year. Palmer's charisma was a major factor in establishing golf as a compelling television event in the 1950s and 1960s, setting the stage for the popularity it enjoys today. His first major championship win at the 1958 Masters cemented his position as one of the leading stars in golf and by 1960 he had signed up as pioneering sports agent Mark McCormack's first client. In later interviews McCormack listed five attributes that made Palmer especially marketable: his good looks; his relatively modest background (his father was a greenkeeper before rising to be club professional and Latrobe was a humble club); the way he played golf, taking risks and wearing his emotions on his sleeve; his involvement in a string of exciting finishes in early televised tournaments; and his affability. Palmer is also credited by many for securing the status of The Open Championship (British Open) among US players. Before Palmer, relatively few American professionals attempted to play The Open due to its travel requirements, foreign environment, and the style of its links courses (radically different from most American courses). Palmer's successive Open wins in the early 1960s convinced many American pros that a trip to Britain would be worth the effort. Of course, the advent of transatlantic air travel by jet at about that time also contributed greatly to making The Open a more attractive tournament for American pros. He has won seven major championships: Palmer's most prolific years were 1960-1963, when he won 29 PGA Tour events in four seasons. In 1960, he won the Hickok Belt as the top professional athlete of the year and Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" award. He built up a wide fan base, often referred to as "Arnie's Army", and in 1967 he became the first man to reach one million dollars in career earnings on the PGA Tour. By the late 1960s Jack Nicklaus had acquired clear ascendancy in their rivalry, but Palmer won a PGA Tour event every year up to 1970, and in 1971 he enjoyed a revival, winning four events. Palmer was eligible for the PGA Senior Tour (now the Champions Tour) from its first season in 1980, and he was one of the marquee names who helped it to become successful. He won ten events on the tour, including five senior majors. Palmer won the first World Match Play Championship in England, an event which was originally organised by McCormack to showcase his stable of players. Their partnership was one of the most significant in the history of sports marketing. Long after he ceased to win tournaments, Palmer remained one of the highest earners in golf due to his appeal to sponsors and the public. In 2004, he competed in The Masters for the last time, marking his 50th consecutive appearance in that event. After missing the cut at the 2005 U.S. Senior Open by twenty-one shots he announced that he would not enter any more senior majors. Palmer has had a diverse golf related business career including owning "Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club and Lodge", which is the venue for the PGA Tour's Bay Hill Invitational, helping to found The Golf Channel, and negotiating the deal to build the first golf course in the People's Republic of China. Since 1971 he has owned Latrobe Country Club, where his father used to be the club professional. Palmer has been inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. [edit] PGA Tour wins
Major championships are shown in bold. [edit] Other regular career wins
[edit] Senior PGA Tour wins
Senior majors are shown in bold. [edit] Other senior wins
[edit] Results in major championships
DNP = Did not play [edit] MiscellaneaPalmer was one of the founders of The Golf Channel. The Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Women in Orlando, Florida is a world-class medical facility named after Palmer. Palmer once put his name to a video game, Arnold Palmer's Tournament Golf, released for the Sega Genesis console in 1989. In 1999, Palmer, Clint Eastwood and Peter Ueberroth led a group that bought Pebble Beach for $820 million. One of Palmer's favorite drinks allegedly is a combination of half iced tea and half lemonade, a drink which is often referred to as an "Arnold Palmer" in his honor. It is now available under the name "The Original Arnold Palmer Tee" (sic) Palmer also has a favorite sandwich he called a Saturday, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with one side refrigerated and the side with peanut butter toasted. The toasted bread is usually wheat bread while the refrigerated piece of bread is typically potato bread. [1] Palmer underwent successful prostate cancer surgery in 1997. Palmer is a 33° freemason. He is an aircraft pilot and bought the first Cessna Citation X. He set a speed record with that aircraft on a 5000km closed course. Former spokesperson for Florida orange juice during use of the famous "It's not just for breakfast anymore" slogan. [edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References[edit] Related Articles[edit] Recent Arnold Palmer ArmchairGM Stories
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